So I just got back into the hobby and I'm really struggling with narrowing what I want to collect down so that its more enjoyable. Just looking for some opinions.

What I'm thinking is this: Only St. Louis Cardinals Bowman rookies and prospects, St. Louis Cardinals Bowman Rookie Autos and inserts, St. Louis Cardinals Topps Heritage Base and Inserts, and finally vintage St. Louis Cardinals Topps and other important St. Louis Cardinals (ex. Bowman Stan Musial rookie).

I'm also thinking that I'm not going to worry about the different color refractors in the Bowman as its not all that important to me to have a card with the same picture with a different colored border. I see how some collectors would enjoy this but its just not for me.

Some of you might ask "why just Topps Heritage?". I really like the more vintage look.

I'm still going to by boxes and bust packs as I really enjoy doing this. My thought is to bust packs and use hits and other cards as trade bait for my Cardinal PC.

Lastly, what do you think I should do with my Cardinals that don't meet my PC criteria? Trade em/Sell em?

I know that really its all up to me on all of this but just curious to here some opinions or experiences.

I have multiple binders for my Tiger PC. Basically, I have vintage Topps through 1980, then I move to what I consider the major releases for each year after that, so Donruss, Fleer and Topps through the 80s, eventually adding in Upper Deck and Score, as well as some of the offshoot sets like Flair and Bowman and Pinnacle. It's all strictly base cards, with the exception of Topps Gold parallels.

Outside of the Gold, I really don't have much interest in parallels or even inserts. I will accept them in trade, however, if it's something I don't already have. Everything I get that doesn't belong in the binders, but it still the only one of a particular card, goes in a sub-PC box. I have all sorts of oddballs in there. I don't really look for them, but once they show up, they do stay a part of my collection.

You've chosen a pretty specific criteria that covers a lot of ground. That's definitely a start. Keep an open mind if you want to shift gears somewhere down the line. Personally, if I were to start collecting all the Bowman prospects from the Tigers, I would be devoting a lot of my collection to guys who will never make it to the big leagues. -Which is fine. Take a look at the 2008 Cardinals' top prospects. It'll give you an idea of what your collection will look like in 5 years: http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/1/11/161451/755. Sure, there's some semi-stars, but most of the guys never have/will pan out. Which is fine, too.

Another thing, if you're going to just be collecting base cards of your players, you'll be able to knock out your needs quickly and cheaply. By the same token, the value of base cards doesn't increase very much.

Personally, I'm a player collector. I have 3 very respectable PCs, and two others I passively add to. It's very easy to keep my collections organized, which I like. Also, I think once you start getting into collecting more, you'll start to appreciate having some color in your collection. All it'll take is for you to pull a Red Chrome David Freese /25 (or whoever) and you'll see what I mean.